To Have a Hero

Got an insight. Totally obvious but an insight nevertheless:

The reason the GOP national polls have had so many leaders is because the rank and file so much want somebody they can follow. They want unity, they want force, they want to defeat Democrats. So once any candidate stands out, they rally behind him --until he fails them. Every candidate has had his time on top... except Romney.

This is going to be a test. If Romney is acceptable to the rank and file as a leader, now that he has his genuine win against McCain, he will be leading nationally in four days. If he's not, there's no chance he can be the nominee.

I don't think he'll make it.

And I think there is so much division within the GOP now that the only man who can lead is one who is a nice guy, because they might be able to rally behind a nice guy who at least has that as a unifying quality; they're certainly not going to unify on issues.

Romney or Fred should be able to unify on issues, but neither is a nice guy (though they're not at all equivalent), and in fact I expect that bundle of issues --the Reagan Coalition-- I expect that bundle is no longer tight.

More later.